【Hitch-hiking from Salt Lake to Denver】PART 2 搭车去丹佛-第2章

If you haven't done so, you probably want to read my previous blog about my preparations for this solo, dangerous quest. In short, I made my decision to solo hitch-hike from Salt Lake City in Utah to Denver, a 600-mile stretch of mostly interstate highways. I evaluated the dangers and tried to minimize them by waiting at gas stations, hoping someone was kind enough to pick me up. 

So, what was I doing in Salt Lake City?

I was on a roadtrip with my boyfriend and his family. We drove some 2000-miles, starting from my favorite city in the US--San Francisco, and were planning to get to Yellowstone. However, we decided to shorten the trip a bit, and end it at Salt Lake City.

It was actually my THIRD time traveling to Salt Lake, believe it or not. My impression of SLC has always been great. People always talk of Utah as a conservative hell filled with Mormons, but all I received at SLC was nothing short of pure kindness and warmth. 

Interestingly, both my last and this visit to SLC involves couch-surfing. If you haven't heard of it, couch-surfing is a great way of getting 'free' sleeping space, being it a couch, a bed, or a floor. I couchsurfed around 6 times before I decided to do it again in SLC. And luckily, my request was accepted just after two hours, by a beautiful girl named Sidney, with whom I stayed for two nights and became friends with. 

盐湖城其实是我毕业公路旅行的终点。我是第三次来盐湖城了，对这里的印象非常好。在我心中，盐湖城并不是一个死板刻薄的摩门教圣地。当地人的真诚和友好让我印象很深刻。这次来到盐湖城，我同样选择了沙发客的形式 （这是我第7次沙发客了，也是第3次一个人沙发客）。我的沙发客主人是一个美丽的女孩子，名叫Sidney. 我在她家待了两天，很快就成为了很好的朋友。

Sidney is an elegant young lady with some acute artistic sense and a precious heart. We had tons of fun watching a free documentary together at downtown SLC and dining at a Tibetan restaurant. She also showed me around City Creek, which was a fancy shopping center downtown. It was at her home that I made this board that has a huge DENVER on it. I didn't plan to use it on the roads. It was only for the sake of photography :)

Sidney只有19岁，是一个很温柔善良的小美女。我在她家里做了这个写着“丹佛”字样的纸板。她没有上过大学，而是高中毕业后就直接工作了。我在姑娘家住了两天，期间和她一起吃饭看电影逛商店，非常快活。

It was hard to start it. 

But after the first move, everything will be OK. 

As Sidney sent me off to start my solo quest, I was a bit anxious yet excited. At least, everything was well-prepared for; and I thought I knew what to expect. 

With a 20-minute walk I arrived at the gas station that I investigated the day before. It was 8:10am in the morning. The traffic looked pretty good. Somehow I managed to push myself hard. It was literally 5 seconds before I asked the first person, then the 2nd, then the third and on and on. I knew I could not wait, otherwise I would have gotten too scared to ask anyone. DO IT, JUST DO IT. I told myself.

When I asked people, I always smiled. Even if they rejected me, I would say something like "Thank you very much. Have a nice day" with a HUGE smile on. Smiling was the only skill you need in order to hitch hike. Everything else was common sense, and pure luck.

迈出第一步总是最难的。Sidney在出发的早晨送我离开。我一个人走到加油站，马上就逼迫自己开始询问车主。我知道，如果自己迟疑了哪怕是一秒钟， 我的勇气就会开始消磨。到达加油站的时候是早上8：10分。做就做吧，我对自己说。然后就有了询问的第一个人，第二个，第三个...每次我的脸上都保持着一个巨大的微笑，哪怕是受到了拒绝也要说“谢谢，希望你今天过得愉快”。微笑是搭车需要的唯一技巧。除此之外，能帮你的只有常识，本能，和运气了。

My questions were short and simple. "Are you by any chance heading EAST or SOUTH" was the one I asked the most. I did not want to be too specific, otherwise people would reject me right away. I wanted the conversations to be longer, so I kept my sentence a bit vague. EAST or SOUTH, hum. 

Then, apparently the store manager or cashier was alerted that somebody was bugging people outside at the station, so a woman came out the store and asked me (not very nicely) to leave. I did not. Instead I shunned away from the store entrance, and kept doing what I was doing.

It was only 15 minutes until my effort paid off!

I was super lucky to be picked up by Sayer, my first hitch-hiking rider ever.  He was heading to Park City, which is about 20min to the east. Well, because my questions were as vague as "are you trying to hit east or south", I guess Park City wasn't a bad start. Even though it was not on my planned route, I was happy as long as I was moving closer to Denver, step by step.

我尽量把自己询问的问题简化：“请问您是否要往南方或东方行进”是我最常用的问题。这个问题比较简单也比较模糊，所以我能有空间进一步和别人搭讪，让他们知道我的最终目的地是丹佛。期间从店里出来一个店员，叫我离开加油站，“不要在这里烦别人”。我没有走，但是尽量离店门口保持一定距离，不让他们看到我。第一个同意载我的人是Sayer, 我只等了15分钟就收到了第一份OK的答复，可谓是十分幸运！虽然他要去的Park City并不在我最初计划的路线上，但毕竟是离丹佛更近的地方，我答应了。

First driver--Sayer

Sayer turned out to be a city planner from Park City, but he was from the East Coast, too. He said he was quite surprised to see me hitch-hiking, because Utah is such a conservative state that you don't see people hitchhiking often nowadays. We even talked about the book 'Wild' by Cheryl Strayed. An interesting conversation. 

Sayer dropped me off at a gas station in Park City. After trying my luck for around 20 minutes, I was picked up again by a nice man called John. Both times I think I asked at least 20 people. Most of them were quite nice, and informed me that they were heading to a different place. I was quite blessed.

Sayer是一个城市规划师，他也来自美国东岸。他说看到我的试图搭车时非常惊讶，因为犹他州是一个共和党的州，加上摩门教的影响，人们都非常保守，所以很少有人在犹他州搭车。

Sayer在Park City的一个加油站把我放下来。我把包放在地上，开始了第二轮的轰炸式询问。这个加油站的人比上一个的少，但是我还是只等了20分钟就遇到了我的第二个车主--John. 

Second driver--John

John looked a bit dirty, so does his car. He was a contractor so I was not surprised that he looked this way. In contrary to his looks, he was a gentleman with a calm voice and some extremely good manners that made me wonder if I am still in America. Anyways, John the soft talker. Nice to meet you. 

John inquired about my plans and decide to drop me off at Heber City. I had to walk some 20 minutes along the road to get to a major gas station where I would have some luck on I-15. However, I waited at a truck station for 40 minutes, and had no luck. I heard that there is another station across the street with a better chance. So I went there and waited another 40 minutes. It was the hottest part of the day with little shade. Lots of sand on the road. Construction. Weariness. The real test had then begun.

I tried different methods. I would leave my backpack somewhere else. Held my water bottle, drank it slowly, and tried to appear civilized. I would watch as a car went into the station from the distance, yet I would not approach it immediately. When the driver was off from his/her car, I would approach, ask, and thank him/her. Repeated this for 100 times. Maybe even more. 

Amanda and Greg's car was VERY FULL when I approached them, so I did not hold much hope. However they managed to squeeze their 4 kids and lots of luggage in the back and made some room for me. THANK GOD! I finally found someone after about a weary 2-hour wait! Woohoo.

John的车和人看上去都脏脏的，可通过和他的交谈却能感觉到他的谦逊和礼貌。John是一个包工头，但却是一个完完全全的绅士，让我有点小惊讶。人不可貌相啊。20分钟之后，他把我在Heber City放下来了。我走路去了当地最大的一个加油站。在这里等了40分钟之后，运气之神这次没有眷顾我。于是我又换了一个地方，又等待了40分钟。那时是正午，天气灼热，马路上尘土飞扬。我第一次觉得累了。

当我遇到Amanda夫妇的时候，他们的车子已经塞满了小孩和行李。但他们还是好心为我腾出了一个位置。不胜感激！那时我已经等了差不多两个小时了。

Amanda and Greg are locals from Utah. They now live near Zion National Park, which I am jealous of. They were on a trip to visit their family in Roosevelt, Utah and would drop me off there. This was totally not my original planned route but I went with it, since it was headed east.

With Amanda's four cute angles in the back of the car. 

Now I was in Roosevelt, somewhere very off from my planned route. I have two options--go first east into Colorado, and try to head south. Or, head south right now, and move east along I-70. The latter plan looked more attractive to me, since I knew I-70 has some quite busy traffic at this time of the year.

Amanda夫妇是犹他本地人，家住在锡安国家公园附近，让我好是羡慕嫉妒。他们的目的地是犹他州北部的小镇Roosevelt. 这里完全不在我起初的计划路线内，但毕竟大方向是对的，我必须要从那里尽量上到州际公路上去。I-70是最好的选择。在下一篇博客里我会详细讲述后面我遇到的两个奇人，威尔和奥伦。

Stay tuned for my next blog, which will feature my star drivers Will and Oren. They are definitely of the most coolest people I have ever met on the road.